1.5 stars

I kept meaning to DNF "at the end of this section," then before I knew it I was at the end having my initial guess about the Big Twist (aka the identity of the mysterious emailer) validated. With the novel's brevity and tight focus, it felt like it was chosen for shock value rather than social commentary or character analysis, which I find annoying because it seemed super cliched (and/or super obvious). On top of that, Hongmei wasn't a particularly compelling or sympathetic protagonist; her internal monologue and behavior were quite repetitive and seemed illogical. ("That's a super creepy thing to say. ... oh well, I'm just going to ignore it in my reply"; "I see his trap and I'm not going to fall for it! ... Why hasn't he emailed me back after I told him to leave me alone?")

To be fair, I could believe that the substance of this story was lost in translation: the nuance of the prose, the culture and beliefs. But at the end of the day I can only review what I read, which was really not at all impressive.